Santa Cruz may find itself on the forefront of the health IT effort

Late last month, Santa Cruz County applied to be a Beacon Community in the federal government’s efforts to improve health internet technology. The Beacon Community program will distribute funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus) to fifteen communities that already have invested in a high level of health IT infrastructure.Wired for Health Information Technology in Santa Cruz County

In Santa Cruz County, some 70% of physicians are already using electronic health records (EHRs), accounting for over half of the counties residents. Santa Cruz County health clinics, Sutter/Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Physicians Medical Group and Dominican Hospital make up the majority of doctors using EHRs in their practices, making care coordination between doctors within these systems more streamlined. Rama Khalsa, Santa Cruz County Health Services Director and author of the SCC grant, says the funds from the Beacon Community program would be used to make sharing across the various EHR programs being used easier and more secure.

Santa Cruz County started making the switch to EHRs early. Beginning in the mid-1990s, Dominican Hospital worked with a local software company to develop an early physician messaging system. In 2003, SCC Health Services Agency adopted EHRs in their clinics.

EHRs are essentially digital medical charts. They take the place of paper charts, but also offer added functionality. Khalsa says that the increased functionality and digitized medical records can lead to:

• Improved quality of care by allowing ambulatory, emergency and urgent care givers to make more informed decisions for patients who are unable to provide a medical history and complete list of medicines they take.
• Increased patient engagement in their own care. Because patients can see their records, they can see improvements or deterioration in health. EHR systems allow doctors to graph and track health outcomes to help patients better understand their care.
• Reduced human error by automatically checking for contra-indicated medicines and by built-in reminders for doctors to do things like checking diabetics’ feet or following up on lab results from previous visits.
• Smoother transitions between care facilities like hospitals, nursing homes and home health care organizations. These transitions represent the most risk for a patient’s health.
• Improved ability for analysis of community health. Because EHR systems also function like databases, it makes it easier to track disease vectors and analyze health outcomes for specific treatments. It also allows health agencies to contact patients at risk in the case of drug recalls.

Federal regulations mandate a high level of encryption be installed into HER systems to keep patient medical information secure. They also mandate that patient billing information be separated from health information. Khalsa says that EHRs actually makes patient information safer than paper records ever could.

While the Beacon Community program grant that Santa Cruz County’s Health Services Agency has applied for is a targeted grant that aims to improve inter-system electronic record exchanges, Rama Khalsa says that improving health IT infrastructure makes it possible to change the way that health care is done in this country.

Immigration Reform and Public Health

Immigration reform is in the air once again – with President Obama saying the issue will be tackled next year. Join Health Dialogues as we look at what it’s like for undocumented and seasonal workers to get health care under the current system, and how immigration reform could change things.